AMT 60 Chevy Fleetside Pickup Restomod

[tcoat]

Just before Christmas I picked up this kit just for the 235 engine to use in my '58 Nomad project. At the time I also ordered some Tamiya spray lacquer in candy apple green (TS-52) for the same project.








When I opened the kit I found that the bench seat was perfect for another upcoming project so now I had a truck model I had zero interest in with no seat or engine. Oh well I will build it as a rotting wreck someday. Or so I thought.



While looking through my stash for wheels for the Nomad I came across an old '86 Monte Carlo kit that a buddy at work gave me a few years back. It had been started by his kids and was a total glue bomb with many parts missing. What it did have was a nice set of untouched wheels, a couple of decent bucket seats and a badly glued but savable fuel injected 305.



Comparing the paint can lid to the Nomad photo my wife declared that it was far to light a tone so I now had a can of Tamiya lacquer with no use for it. It was at this point I realized that I had the parts to fill the gaps in the Fleetside and could use the practice using spray lacquer and clear coat (I have never used these before since most of my work has been military). I also have always struggled with BMF but got enough time in on this that I am now comfortable with it.



So Christmas eve I hit the bench (a small desk in my living room so no I was not secluded) and got t work.



As this was meant to be a learning venture I didn't take build pictures and half expected it would still end up as a rotted out hulk someday but the finished work made me very, very happy.



























The engine bay did not get any wiring but since those fuel injected 305s hid most of it anyway it isn't really missed.










It will be displayed with the hood up because I like the hood brackets











The interior looks rough in the pictures but all that stuff that looks like dirt turns into shading and highlights once closed up in the cab.








Didn't do much underneath since it would obviously be a show truck. Just enough to make it different than the shiny bodywork. There is currently no exhaust past the manifolds while I try to find just the right side pipes for it





All in all this is not a subject that would normally appeal to me at all but I learned a fair bit on this one and it will make my future bright and shiny projects less intimidating to me

[kyledehart5]

This truck is gorgeous!!! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Since you were talking to an empty room back then. Lol

[project510]

Very well done. Agree on the brackets. Great job.

[tcoat]

Mar 4, 2024 16:57:43 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

This truck is gorgeous!!! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Since you were talking to an empty room back then. Lol

Ahh but did you catch my open wheel build clue?

[kyledehart5]

Mar 4, 2024 17:09:29 GMT -5 tcoat said:

Mar 4, 2024 16:57:43 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Hi This truck is gorgeous!!! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Since you were talking to an empty room back then. Lol

Ahh but did you catch my open wheel build clue?

I can only surmise that you still have a certain go-kart sitting around? That would be perfect indeed!!

[tcoat]

Mar 4, 2024 17:46:35 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Mar 4, 2024 17:09:29 GMT -5 tcoat said:

Ahh but did you catch my open wheel build clue?

I can only surmise that you still have a certain go-kart sitting around? That would be perfect indeed!!

[plstcjunky]

That is the prettiest "rotted-out hulk" that I have EVER seen!!! LOL
Fantastic work! the bed looks like real wood, is it?

[tcoat]

Mar 4, 2024 19:13:25 GMT -5 plstcjunky said:

That is the prettiest "rotted-out hulk" that I have EVER seen!!! LOL
Fantastic work! the bed looks like real wood, is it?

Nope. Just the kit bed under several layers of paint and washes with BMF on the braces.

[Leon]

Really nice finish on this!

[handiabled]

The paint, BMF, bed and interior all pull together perfectly! The paint job absolutely glows! Stellar job on this. It certainly doesn't have the appearance of a build out of your comfort zone.

[406 Silverado]

Somehow.......I missed this thread when you posted it all up dang near a year ago Tony. That TPFI 305 looks PERFECT in this ride and the interior work is drop dead gorgeous. What I'm really zeroing in on is that paint work consisting of not only an out of the ordinary color but also a great shine. You put some good efforts into this one and it shows.

[tcoat]

Mar 5, 2024 5:08:44 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Somehow.......I missed this thread when you posted it all up dang near a year ago Tony. That TPFI 305 looks PERFECT in this ride and the interior work is drop dead gorgeous. What I'm really zeroing in on is that paint work consisting of not only an out of the ordinary color but also a great shine. You put some good efforts into this one and it shows.

The funny part of this build is that I put very little effort and zero planning into it. As  test bed I 100% expected to just pitch the whole thing out at the end. The wheels, engine, seats, console, and mirrors just happened to be in boxes beside me that I had out looking for something else. The engine block probably had a whole tube of glue on it and I pretty much had to hand carve it back to shape. I failed with 3 attempts at the gloss white roof so what you see there now is just Tamiya white primer with a couple of coats of Future. The green rattle can paint I sprayed on in a cardboard box in my sunroom which was just slightly above freezing at the time. The BMF I used in the bed was really old and barely stuck on so I had to use Future to glue it down. I literally threw the chassis together in about half an hour and didn't spend more that a total of 15 hours working time on the whole thing.
The point of the matter is that every single aspect of this build should have resulted in disaster and a shelf queen or conversion to a hulk in a field but somehow, in some way, it all came together to be one of my very favourite builds. 

I like it enough that it holds a place of honour in my "Cars I Used Too Own" cabinet even though I did not own one! It will however get bumped someday when I need the space for one I did own.

[garybrantley]

That is beautiful work! 🤩  The paintwork alone is prize winning stuff!  🏆

When we returned from 14 months in Australia in the Spring of 1967, my dad bought a '60 Chevy short bed, fleet-side pickup.  It had what Chevrolet called a "Custom Cab" and featured a full width rear window.   The emblem on the side said, "Apache 10".  The truck had a 283 V8 and a three on the tree shifter.   It was my first "hot rod".   I got my license that summer, at 14, and drove that truck everywhere!   It really had a good motor and with my Dad buying those cheap mufflers at Gibsons Discount Center, it usually had a throaty roar too.  Oh, the fun I had in that old, blue truck!

It's funny now when I consider how rough that truck was when Dad bought it and it was just 7 years old.  It must've really had a hard life before we got it!   Seven-year-old trucks that I see now still look new!    😊

[tcoat]

Mar 5, 2024 10:20:53 GMT -5 garybrantley said:

That is beautiful work! 🤩  The paintwork alone is prize winning stuff!  🏆

When we returned from 14 months in Australia in the Spring of 1967, my dad bought a '60 Chevy short bed, fleet-side pickup.  It had what Chevrolet called a "Custom Cab" and featured a full width rear window.   The emblem on the side said, "Apache 10".  The truck had a 283 V8 and a three on the tree shifter.   It was my first "hot rod".   I got my license that summer, at 14, and drove that truck everywhere!   It really had a good motor and with my Dad buying those cheap mufflers at Gibsons Discount Center, it usually had a throaty roar too.  Oh, the fun I had in that old, blue truck!

It's funny now when I consider how rough that truck was when Dad bought it and it was just 7 years old.  It must've really had a hard life before we got it!   Seven-year-old trucks that I see now still look new!    😊

My dad had a '64 stepside with about the same story on how rough it was. Pictures are from '70 or '71 and the truck was really bad already. Believe it had been a badly abused farm truck that had sat with the hood open for a while before he got it so the engine was seized solid. I would have been about 11 and it was one of my first real wrenching projects as we got it freed up and running. Since my dad's tool kits consisted of two screwdrivers, 4 wrenches, a 2x4 and a hammer it was also my educational experience in every single curse word and expletive ever written. It ran great for years after we eventually got it freed up by leaving it in gear and yanking on it with a chain attached to a tractor. I do remember that he "paid" for it with half a dozen or so live chickens!

Other than the engine the condition was probably pretty normal for a northern '50s or '60s truck since back then they were built with a 3 year life expectancy. 

[garybrantley]

Brrrrrr...man, those pics make me need to pee! 😄   I laughed out loud about learning the curse words!  I did too!  Ah, all the great things we learn from dear old Dad!  I still miss ol' Johnny Brantley!  And I'm now far older than he ever got to be. 

[tcoat]

Mar 5, 2024 10:52:22 GMT -5 garybrantley said:

Brrrrrr...man, those pics make me need to pee! 😄   I laughed out loud about learning the curse words!  I did too!  Ah, all the great things we learn from dear old Dad!  I still miss ol' Johnny Brantley!  And I'm now far older than he ever got to be. 

I have almost zero pictures of the cars in the family since they cost money to take back then. For some odd reason though snow seemed to be important enough to warrant one or two pictures.

This was my Grandfather's pride and joy '64 Galaxy 500. It was the only car he ever bought new and he babied it beyond belief. The ONLY picture of it is buried in snow!



Mind you I can't talk since I carry on the tradition

[Medicman71]

That looks awesome!! Way better than I could do.

[tcoat]

Mar 5, 2024 11:22:33 GMT -5 Medicman71 said:

That looks awesome!! Way better than I could do.

LOL I am not being self-deprecating when I say...

[dupes]

Man...this is sharp. The interior is killer!

[maverick]

It looks good from my house! I gotta tell ya...It seems the builds that don't get planned...Just get thrown together? seem to turn out the best! Probably because were not sweating the outcome/details. Yeah, I would put that on my shelf too...

[406 Silverado]

Mar 5, 2024 15:23:01 GMT -5 maverick said:

It looks good from my house! I gotta tell ya...It seems the builds that don't get planned...Just get thrown together? seem to turn out the best! Probably because were not sweating the outcome/details. Yeah, I would put that on my shelf too...

  Funny how that works out too. I built a 1/35 scale Type 82 Volkswagen in a pretty short time frame as a filler build and it turned out pretty good as well. 

[tcoat]

Mar 5, 2024 21:09:19 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Mar 5, 2024 15:23:01 GMT -5 maverick said:

It looks good from my house! I gotta tell ya...It seems the builds that don't get planned...Just get thrown together? seem to turn out the best! Probably because were not sweating the outcome/details. Yeah, I would put that on my shelf too...

  Funny how that works out too. I built a 1/35 scale Type 82 Volkswagen in a pretty short time frame as a filler build and it turned out pretty good as well. 

[atomicholiday]

Man that’s one great looking truck. Excellent job!👍

[aaronw]

Can't say I'm a fan of the color choice (my eyes, it burns  ), but the rest is great. Something about those 60s Chevy trucks that I like. They were not really a looker, but very distinctive. Your modern upgrades are well done and very believable. 

[tcoat]

Mar 6, 2024 22:37:15 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Can't say I'm a fan of the color choice (my eyes, it burns  ), but the rest is great. Something about those 60s Chevy trucks that I like. They were not really a looker, but very distinctive. Your modern upgrades are well done and very believable. 

LOL As I said in the opening I didn't really choose the colour for this project (or even plan this project) but was trying to match the colour of my '58 Nomad. Since this was too light I just used it for practice. It isn't quite as jarring as the close up pictures make it look. 
The truck is done in Tamiya TS52 Candy Lime green and the Nomad is closer to TS20 Metallic green. I juggled both in the LHS but choose the wrong one according to the wife. 
In the long run I had to agree with her.

[aaronw]

Mar 7, 2024 7:23:28 GMT -5 tcoat said:

Mar 6, 2024 22:37:15 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Can't say I'm a fan of the color choice (my eyes, it burns  ), but the rest is great. Something about those 60s Chevy trucks that I like. They were not really a looker, but very distinctive. Your modern upgrades are well done and very believable. 

LOL As I said in the opening I didn't really choose the colour for this project (or even plan this project) but was trying to match the colour of my '58 Nomad. Since this was too light I just used it for practice. It isn't quite as jarring as the close up pictures make it look. 
The truck is done in Tamiya TS52 Candy Lime green and the Nomad is closer to TS20 Metallic green. I juggled both in the LHS but choose the wrong one according to the wife. 
In the long run I had to agree with her.

Been there and with the price of paint, you will want to find a project for it.

Nice wagon, it confused me for years that they later sold the Nomad as a 4 door wagon.

[tcoat]

Mar 7, 2024 10:10:55 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Mar 7, 2024 7:23:28 GMT -5 tcoat said:

LOL As I said in the opening I didn't really choose the colour for this project (or even plan this project) but was trying to match the colour of my '58 Nomad. Since this was too light I just used it for practice. It isn't quite as jarring as the close up pictures make it look. 
The truck is done in Tamiya TS52 Candy Lime green and the Nomad is closer to TS20 Metallic green. I juggled both in the LHS but choose the wrong one according to the wife. 
In the long run I had to agree with her.

Been there and with the price of paint, you will want to find a project for it.

Nice wagon, it confused me for years that they later sold the Nomad as a 4 door wagon.

It get's even more confusing with the '58 since "Nomad" was really just an exterior trim package based upon the Impala. It had nothing to do with the rest of the car being upgraded and you could order just about any configuration desired. Mine was literally a base Biscayne with a 6 cylinder, 3 on the tree, power nothing and base cloth seats but did have a prettier dash, some slightly upgraded door panels and loads of chrome on the outside.

[outerlimtz]

Beautifully done. The interior is sweet. Love the green/white combo.